No Haven in New Haven

Betsy Yagla Photo

Youth Rights Media's Miya Brooks: "They say 'kids first' but then put us last."

It looked like trouble: A gaggle of black teenagers were loitering on Whalley Avenue. Two New Haven police cars pulled up to confront the group, who, as it turns out, were simply circulating a petition.

That brief encounter, captured on film, succinctly made Youth Rights Media's point in its new documentary, No Haven—a film focusing on New Haven teens' lack of a youth-friendly space in the city. Teens hang out on the street because they feel there's nowhere else to go. When the police approached them in the film, YRM members were gathering signatures for a petition asking the state to focus on helping teens in lieu of locking up non-violent youth.

No Haven—a stunningly sleek piece of work—asks why the state continues to spend $950 a day per teen at the maximum security Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS), instead of funding preventative programs.

CJTS was supposed to close this year, thanks to YRM's eye-opening 2004 documentary about the school. YRM students—socially conscious New Haven teens armed with video cameras—gathered footage of a brutal beat-down from CJTS staff, offered an official tour of the facility (which is for teens up to 15 years old), and conducted interviews with kids who'd spent time there. The documentary was so shocking it sparked Gov. Jodi Rell to announce the facility would close in 2008.

But that hasn't happened, and it might not for a while—there's no consensus on what to do with CJTS.

"We are so trying to get that closed," says 15-year-old YRM member Djuana Lowndes.

"We're spending a lot of money [at CJTS] just to babysit these kids," says state Rep. Mike Lawlor (D-East Haven.) There is no data, Lawlor says, that proves kids at CJTS go home better than they came in. "If we're going to spend all this money, why don't we do it in a way that actually works?"

Rell's idea was to close CJTS and replace it with small, regional centers; others say that's unnecessary. The debate was postponed because of the state budget crisis.

Statewide and in New Haven there seems to be a roadblock when it comes to youth programs. A year after New Haven Alderman Jorge Perez dubbed 2007 the "year of the youth," there are no new city programs and no new ideas.

"I don't believe money is an issue," says Perez. "If this was truly a priority we would do something—whether its state, federal, private or foundation money. We'd find a way."

Without proposing solid solutions, No Haven's interviews, with local teens and community leaders like city Youth Department head Che Dawson and state Rep. Toni Walker, explore attitudes toward teens and the teens' frustration at the lack of youth centers. No one, though, seems to have answers.

"We try to make our own fun," says Levar Corbett, an 18-year-old YRM member. "When you don't have something to do, you create something to do. Kids pick up habits on the streets—they're smoking, smoking weed, just vibing with each other. But there needs to be something else."

The city funds programs, like Youth@Work and Open Schools, but sometimes teens just want to hang out. A youth center, says Corbett, would give kids a safe, constructive place to go.

Downtown Alderwoman Bitsie Clark, who heads the aldermanic youth committee, agrees. "I'm interested in getting the public to focus on the need for a safe place or a set of safe places," she says. "It needs to be a place that will be tolerant of young people, but will also be safe."

In the video, Dawson is pressed about the youth centers. He answers defensively, saying they won't solve all the teens' problems. He's doing his job, he says, but what are the teens doing? "If you're around your friends and you're doing something negative and you don't speak up, you've contributed to a negative aspect of your culture," he tells them.

To the kids, Dawson's answer smacked of passing the buck. "What do you tell me if I keep going to legislative bodies and say, 'The youth are important' and 'We need this,'" Dawson asks rhetorically, his voice rising. "What do you tell me? What do I do?"

YRM's first documentary about CJTS was sent to Rell and members of the legislature, prompting the call to close the school. The students are still figuring out their marketing tactics for No Haven—it just might have an impact on state funding priorities.

"They have to invest in our future," says 17-year-old YRM member Miya Brooks. "They're sending us mixed messages—they say 'kids first,' but then they put us last."

byagla@newhavenadvocate.com